


Actually, fuck you!

by orphan_account



Series: Fire In My Soul [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Author Is Sleep Deprived, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Tony Stark, Civil War Team Iron Man, F/M, Gen, Not A Fix-It, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Beta Read, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 07:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14689371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tony Stark finds out he has a daughter. Pepper is being badass CEO. Team Cap causes major messes, especially Wanda.Tony Stark is finally getting tired of Steve's bullshit. He plays the game by his own rules, builds his family and gets the support of entire world. Pepper is doing practically the same, only she is so much meaner towards those who messed with her family.I suck at summaries.[THIS WORK IS ORPHANED FOR THE TIME BEING AND I DO NOT PLAN ON UPDATING IT ANY TIME SOON. SEND ME A COMMENT IF YOU WANT TO TAKE OVER IT]p.s Do not read this if you even remotely like Wanda Maximoff, cause I will be super harsh on her and everyone who loves her (Vision not included). Basically it will be Villain!Wanda





	1. It's a girl!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so this is your author speaking. Tags will be added and relationships will be mended in coordination with suggestions in comments. BTW, do not read this if you even remotely like Wanda Maximoff, cause I will be super harsh on her and everyone who loves her (Vision not included). I can't get over my Infinity War feels, so I will just pretend it doesn't exist. And two warnings: 1) English is not my native language and 2) This is my first fanfic, so please don't be harsh on me.

“Sir, I have something interesting for you,” said Friday as Tony entered his lab after the dinner with Pepper celebrating their press conference-turned-engagement. His face was lightened up with a huge grin. It was first time he had felt happy since that day in that bunker.

“Lay it all out. Side note: if it is about Captain Oh Captain, keep it until tomorrow. I don’t want my mood ruined.”

“Actually, it’s entirely random. I found out about it by pure accident.”

Tony’s brow arched as he grabbed a can of coffee and settled on a metal counter. “Tell me more.”

“Your program for gifted youngsters, LEGACY? Not sure if you read all Terms and Conditions of your own program, but one of them states that Stark Industries will pay for medical insurance. Well, one of the kids, Anna Brands, cut her arm when she fell off the ladder while reaching out for sodium in LEGACY facility while on course. So she was taken into hospital to stitch it up, where her medical card was pulled up. I took the liberty of looking into her medical history, just to make sure that the medications won’t cause any allergies and stumbled upon an allergy to Sicut Verbumus.”

Tony opened a bag of blueberries and shove a handful of berries in his mouth. “To the point, Friday, get to the point.”

“The allergy is very rare, genetic and you have it.”

Tony stopped eating. “Are you implying-”

“Anna is an orphan, but I pulled up her dead parents records. Actually, parent, as Anna’s dad is unknown. Well, Anna’s mother is Lana Brands, died six years ago, when Anna was eleven. Lana was a physics teacher. You and her actually met, she somehow got a pass to science conference in Paris in 2000, where you were giving a lecture on integration of magnetic levitation into auto transport. Whatever happened after is beyond my knowledge.”

Tony’s breathing became more rapid, as he muttered, “Pull up her and Anna’s picture.”

The first picture was of a woman in her thirties, big grey eyes, puckered lips and ivory skin. Her blond hair were pulled up in a fancy hairdo as she smiled at something behind the camera.

“That’s her picture in 2000,” narrated Friday and another picture appeared, “And that’s Anna.”

Brown hair. Big deep brown eyes. Full lips. Honey skin. Arched brow.

 “Crap!” exclaimed Tony, jumped off the counter and started walking circles around the lab. “I remember Lana now. We did get intimate. Fri, I assumed you checked the dates and the pregnancy duration and stuff-”

 “Yes sir. I say there is 97.4 possibility Anna Brands is your daughter, given the results of a DNA test, which I took the liberty to conduct,” sullenly proclaimed Friday.

 “Oh fuck!” Tony sat on the floor and nervously ate blueberries. And then he heard Pepper’s voice. It was at that moment Tony Stark knew: he fucked up.

 “Oh fuck indeed.”

“Hi Pep.” He turned around to face Pepper, who apparently been standing there the whole time.

“Hi Tony. I brought you coffee.” Pepper set down a cup of espresso. “So, just as I predicted, one of your one-night stands had consequences. Why am I not surprised?”

“Shit, shit, shit. Pep, am I supposed to go meet her?” Stark raced around the lab in circles, nervously sipping espresso.

“No, we are supposed to go meet her. She’s still in the hospital, so you better hurry up.” Pepper marched out of the room.

“Wait, are you not mad at me?” Tony reached out to Pepper and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Would be mad, if you didn’t tell me. We’ll sort this out. But for real, let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

 

A red-headed woman in sunglasses and black pantsuit made her way through the hospital hall to a thirty-something woman in t-shirt with Stark Industries and LEGACY program logos.

 “Miss-” Pepper glanced over woman’s badge, “Rosewood, right?”

 Rosewood nodded. Pepper slightly lifted her sunglasses and stared at her. “Virginia Potts, Stark Industries CEO.”

 Rosewood blushed. She had just been hired as a helper to LEGACY program, she never expected the famous Pepper Potts to talk to her. “It’s an honour to meet you, Miss Potts.”

 “Thank you.” Pepper smiled. “I’ve been informed that you’re here with Anna Brands, LEGACY student. Thank you so much for watching over here, but I’ll take it from here.”

 “I’m sorry, Miss Potts, but I am not allowed-”

 “Allowed. You can turn over student to another staff member of LEGACY, which I am, and here is a fax from your supervisor. Can you please show me to Anna?”

 “Of course, Miss.” Rosewood nodded and pointed her to a door on her right. “She is there, resting. Doctor said she can go home in half an hour.”

 “Thank you, Miss Rosewood. You’re free to go.”

 Pepper strutted towards the door. She carefully opened it and faced a girl sitting on a hospital bed there. The girl raised her head, startled by a visitor.

 “Hi.” Pepper smiled, not baring her teeth. “I’m Pepper Potts.” She took off her sunglasses.

 Anna’s eyes widened. “The Pepper Potts? The CEO of-”

 “Stark Industries. Yep, that’s me. I thought I’d drop by and check up on you.”

 “Um, thanks?” Anna’s breath became more rapid. “But- You didn’t- Just to check up…”

 Pepper became more serious. “Well, yeah. I did not. But first let me see. How’s your arm?”

 “Good.” Anna showed Pepper a bandaged forearm. “They said it’ll heal in a month or so.”

 “Nice. SI has prepaid two more visits to the hospital to get it check out. I don’t want it infected.”

 “Thank you,” said Anna.

 “Anyway. Can I call you Anna?”

“Yeah sure.”

 “Anna… I’m here to talk about your father.”

Anna froze and stared at Pepper. “I never knew him.”

 “Okay, if, say, he showed up, would you be mad at him?”

 “A lot. For leaving me and mom.”

 “Hmm… so your mom told you about him?”

 ”She never named him, she did however say that he left when I was little. Miss Potts, why are you questioning me?” asked the girl, regaining her confidence.

 “Just one more question and then I’ll tell you, okay?” 

The girl didn’t like being questioned, but Pepper somehow was a beacon of trust and she decided to accept. “Go ahead.”

“What if your mom lied and your dad never left you when you were little, but instead, he didn’t even know you existed, because your mom never contacted him?”

Anna froze again. “Well, in that case…” She hesitated. “He can’t be really blamed, can he?”

“Anna, I have something important to tell you.” Pepper looked in the eyes of the girl. “Your father is Tony Stark.”


	2. Hi, daughter.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony meets Anna and they come to an arrangement about Anna's future fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEEEY, it's your author speaking. First of all I'd like to apologize for that 4 copies snafu, my browser froze and went in some sort of a loop, so yeah, that happened. So, in this chapter, I attempted to fix some of the plotholes I've accidentally created in my first chapter. I really liked the result, but the grammar may not be perfect:) And btw, the story will be updated every 3-4 days, most likely, the next update will be on Thursday. Please enjoy.

Tony waited anxiously in the car, as Pepper decided to take the lead in revealing the truth to Anna. Pepper had told Tony that she would break the truth to Anna herself, because ‘you will screw it up, Tony, and don’t try to tell me otherwise!’ and have a girl come inside the car for a chat. He thought that it was really suspicious how easily Pepper decided to take in an unknown kid, even the one who had Tony’s blood in her veins. Stark made a mental note to have a talk with Pepper about it later on.

“FRIDAY, please tell me where the fuck are they, cause I’m starting to get-” he cut short, because it was at that time that he saw Pepper gracefully descending from the stairs of the hospital with Anna by her side. Tony froze. He never thought about having family, having kids. And yet, here he was. He saw Anna peer into the windows of the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, where Tony was in the driving seat. Three… Tony begun the mental countdown in his head, as the two females approached the car. Two… He saw Pepper tell something to the girl. One… The door of a passenger seat opened and Anna climbed into the car. The girl stared at him for a whole minute, while Pepper was getting into the backseat.

“Hi. I’m Tony,” he said warmly, trying to hide his shaking hands. “Anna, right?”

The girl nodded. “Sir, is that true? Are you- are you my father?”

Tony slightly leaned forward. “Well, yes. Turns out I am.”

Anna sighed. “Jesus… All these years she’s been telling me you were a nameless asshole who left when I was two… while my father has been you.”

“Listen, I understand that this is hard for you,” said Tony, adjusting himself in order to better see Anna’s face, “But I want you to know that I will do as you say. If you tell me that you want to leave and never see or hear from me again, than so be it, I’ll understand. If you tell me that you want to get some time to digest it, then, again, I’ll do exactly as you say. But, if I may, I really want to talk things over, so whenever you are ready, just give me a call, come to the Tower for a dinner, let’s talk it all over.”

Anna stayed silent for a couple of minutes. Tony started losing hope, feeling that at any given moment, the girl will turn around, get out of the car and leave, because she didn’t want to be around him-

“Can we go right now?” Anna interrupted his thoughts.

“Uh, yeah, gladly.” Tony was visibly confused, with his brow slowly crawling to an upward position. Anna saw that as a prompt to explain her decision. “I don’t want to go back to the orphanage. Why do you think I spend all my time at LEGACY?”

It was at that moment that Tony noticed a large bruise on Anna’s shoulder. Anna noticed him flinch slightly, when he saw the wound, and she thought that it was terribly odd, for a person, who had never met her to already feel so protective of her.

“Is that-” Tony gestured towards the girl’s shoulder, “from there?”  
Anna nodded. “I told on a guy for breaking my science project, he gathered his gang and well, that happened. Today was supposed to be a part two. So… for me, anywhere is better than there.”

Tony quietly growled. “You are not returning there.”

Anna arched her brow in a way that was far too similar to Tony’s. “How? They are my legal guardians. I mean, yeah, they don’t do anything, but by law-”

“Anna, do you mind if I take full custody of you? I mean, you can still do whatever you want and not see me again, but if you want, you can live at the Tower, still not seeing me, if you don’t want to and never come back there?”

“Wait. Are you offering me to live in the Stark Tower?”

Tony couldn’t read Anna, so he decided to continue in a neutral way. “Umm, yeah.”

“With you?”

“If you don’t want to, you won’t even notice I am there. Pepper will watch over you, I’ll stay out of your way. It’s just- I don’t want you in the orphanage. But you are free to do-”

“Please stop repeating that, I understood that you don’t want to be persistent.”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, persistent, that’s the word. So…”

“I accept, but with one condition. I will come if I will see you there. I don’t want you to ignore me.”

Tony’s face brightened up. “Very well then.” He tapped at his watch. “FRIDAY, I want full custody by the end of the day. Get our legal team, make them sign NDAs, along with my PA. Drop all of them off at the orphanage and get to work.”  
”Yes boss. And hello, Anna, I’m FRIDAY, it’s nice to meet you.,” replied FRIDAY and Tony saw Anna’s eyes open so wide, that he was genuinely scared for them.

“Uhh, that’s my AI. I got some explaining to do, ain’t I?”

Anna slowly nodded.

“Well, then buckle yourself in. I’ll tell you all about it on the road.”

And with these words black Cherokee drove out of the alley, scaring a couple of pigeons on its way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed, if you did please leave kudos and comment.  
> P.S Team Cap and Villain!Wanda: The Beginning in next chapter!


	3. Welcome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I'm really sorry for this late update, but unfortunately I've been sick for three days and my parents didn't let me near my laptop, so I couldn't really write or post anything. Anyway in this chapter I wanted to lay the ground for Villain!Wanda and further explore the relationship of Anna and Tony. Also some Civil War aftermath and I'm sorry in advance for a slight cliffhanger.

Meanwhile, in Wakanda.

Wanda was never the one to feel regret. So at that particular moment, when she was standing on the border of Wakanda with Steve and the rest of the team, who Steve had just broken out of prison, being confronted by T’Challa about illegally entering his country and wanting to stay (“Why did you think it was okay for you to break into my country, Rogers?”) , she influenced his mind and never regretted it.

T’Challa blinked once and looked at Steve. “How long it is that you request to stay for, Captain?” he said, his voice soft in contrast to his rant which ended just a second before.

Steve suspiciously eyed T’Challa, taken aback by this sudden change of heart. “I was thinking about a month, maybe two. Just to wait til the Accords fall apart and Tony will cool down a bit.”

“Very well, then. Follow us to the Palace. However I must demand that you make no contact with outside world and you shall not leave your quarters.”

Dora Milaje glanced in confusion at the King, with Okoye muttering to the King. “My King, are you sure that-”

She was quickly silenced with Wanda slightly waving her hand, which went unnoticed with everyone else.  
”Follow us,” repeated King, and the group went after his lead to a futuristic jet, which was nearby.

 

* * *

 

Stark Tower.

“So, you say that Friday has access to how many satellites?” asked Anna, while Tony shut down the hologram screen, which he was using to explain the principles of his A.I to Anna for the last hour.

“I kind of lost the count, since she just hacks them by herself, but I think we are up to 650?” answered Tony, still not believing that it was his daughter with him in his lab.

“Actually, Boss, it’s 764,” replied FRIDAY from the ceiling, startling Anna who slightly flinched at her voice.

“So yeah. By the way, don’t worry, you’ll get used to her, if you’ll stay. She scares everyone, when they first meet her.” “Please stay,” added Tony internally.

“Uh-uh,” agreed the girl absentmindedly. And what’s that?” Anna nodded towards a circular metal container with ‘Very Hazardous’ sticker on its top.

Tony coughed to cover up his sigh. “That’s, that’s just some hazardous materials. And that’s a special container for hazardous materials. Which I recommend you never open or even touch, as the materials inside had been known to deal permanent damage to the heart and ribcage.”

“What kind of materials? Like Uranium?” Anna approached the container, gazing at it.

“Uhh…” Tony didn’t want to lie, as he hated being lied to by his parents, but he couldn’t tell the truth either. Nobody knew about Siberia yet, except for Vision, who got him home from there and FRIDAY, who called Vision, arranged hospital stay, made everyone involved sign NDAs and did her best to cover it all up from Pepper and Rhodey. Well, thinking of it, there was another person who knew and it was thanks to her that Tony was still alive.

“Boss, your Chinese takeout had arrived. Do you want to call Ms Potts, Mr Rhodes, Ms Van Dyne, Mr Parker, Mr Keener and Vision to have a group dinner or you want your part of the food brought here for private dining?” Tony’s search for a suitable white lie was interrupted by FRIDAY.

“How you want it, Anna?” he asked the girl, hoping to distract her from the container.

“Well, I am planning to spend some time here…” replied Anna slowly, sending Tony into internal dancing, “…so I think, it’s better to meet all the residents now. One thing though: can we please not tell anyone about me being your daughter yet? I don’t think I’m ready.”  
”Of course. How about… selected LEGACY intern, whom I offered a private scholarship? Plus there are two already here. Harley Keener and Peter Parker are selected interns too,” said Tony, a bit disappointed as he wanted to brag about his daughter suggesting an improvement in FRIDAY’s work, but happy that she at least wanted to meet all of his new teammates and friends.

“Yeah, that will do. So, give me a second to freshen up and I will join you,” replied the girl and went to the exit of the lab.

“Sure thing. FRIDAY will guide you towards your quarters and then towards the common room,” replied Tony and watched Anna skip towards the elevator.

That’s when it happened. That’s when pain happened. Deafening and blinding it swung through every cell of Tony’s body, originating from his heart and that pain wasn’t imaginary, it was very very real.

“Fri…” coughed out Tony, dropping on the floor and clutching his shirt, “Blackout…”

The lab’s windows went dark. “Boss, I read a heart anomaly, do you want me to call down Miss Potts or-”

“Call…” Tony noticed that there was blood in his cough. “…Cho… Call Helen… Cho…”

“Yes Boss, shall I inform Miss-”

Tony pulled himself onto the sofa. “No!” he shrieked and coughed profusely after it.

“Don’t let them know…” he muttered and then there was darkness.

 Tony knew that Helen Cho was coming to help him. What he didn’t know was that she wasn’t alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave kudos and comment:) No negative comments please)


	4. What the fuck?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit goes down, as Tony's being helped by Helen Cho and some other people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! Exams got the best of me, but here you go a long and nicely spaced chapter. Anyway, chapter is not beta read, so I have no idea if it has any mistakes (English not my native language so grammar mistakes and misused words are possible...) In this chapter I tried my best to write realistic reactions but because I am a little shit with no feelings and with caffeine instead of soul, it may be slightly weird. And also, the next two chapters will be what happened meanwhile in Wakanda and in Stark Tower, so in comments, please write which one do you want first - the Wakanda one or the Stark Tower one?

‘Ughh… What the fuck had just happen?’ Tony opened his eyes and stared at white ceiling above him.

‘I’ve got you down in my lab,’ said Helen Cho, looking up from the monitor, ‘your heart-’

‘Fuck!’ Tony tried to sit up, but Helen held him down. ‘Shit! How long has it been since FRIDAY called you?’

‘Umm, I think two hours or so, but, anyway, please stop moving-” Helen Cho stared at Tony, who was frantically moving his head around.

‘Shit, two hours! That’s- that’s, jeez, I need to call her, screw it, I don’t know her number, crap, Helen, if you could just get me a taxi or something or lend me a car that’d be great.’ Despite Helen’s efforts, Tony was removing the sensors from underneath his shirt. He wanted to pull out his IV drip (he could do that not harming himself, he had medical training), but Cho covered it with her hand and stopped him.

‘Tony… you’re, you’re not going anywhere, your heart can’t take it! I can’t even let you sit up, much less stand or walk!’ slightly raising her voice at the end said Helen, looking at him.

‘What do you mean?’ he said, stopping moving and staring at Helen. ‘It used to just fine, you patched me up after Siberia…’

Helen moved over to another side of the hospital bed, sighing and put the sensors back on Tony’s chest. ‘I did, but today something triggered the decay of the cells.’

Tony stayed still for a couple of seconds. ‘Tell me everything. And, please, don’t sugarcoat it, Helen,’ he finally said solemnly.

Helen exhaled loudly, tilting her head and giving Tony a judging look. ‘ I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t know what triggered it, but today at 18:03 the cells I fixed with the Cradle started decaying. Your sternum is falling apart at the seams, together with your heart. I’ve sent out an order for a heart transplant, but-’ Helen stops, letting the words hang in the air.

‘But what? Helen, lay it all out, I can take it. This is not the first time I’ve been told I’m…’ Tony left the sentence unfinished, but it was obvious that the missing word was ‘dying’.

‘But I don’t think it will help. As I said, it’s not clear what caused such reaction, so it may continue even after the transplantation.’

‘No, no, no, it can’t be.’ Tony closed his eyes for a second and exhaled, frantically thinking about possible solutions and wondering if Helen Cho could make a mistake. She must’ve made a mistake, he thought, it’s not possible he was dying. Not today anyways. Today was the best day of his life, his daughter was finally with him, where she belonged. And what? He can’t even go to Anna. She must be so angry at him, he ditched her for dinner and she had to introduce herself. Tony hoped that FRIDAY messaged Pepper to treat Anna as a selected intern and nothing embarrassed Anna.

“Helen, you made a mistake. It’s a joke, right? I can’t be dying, no, not right now? Right?” Tony said, agitated with his frenzied eyes scanning Helen’s face for a laugh and words ‘Yes, I’m kidding, Tony.’

Instead, she lowered her head and quietly said, “I’m afraid no. I’m sorry, Tony. I will do anything I can. Do you want me to call anyone?”

“No, just give me my phone. I can use my phone right?”

”Only if you promise me not to worry and not raise your heartbeat.” Helen reached out for a mobile which was lying nearby, but suddenly stopped.

”What?” impatiently said Tony, trying to catch a sight of whatever Helen was glaring at, but Helen just gestured him to be quiet.

And then he saw it as well. Orange sparks in the corner of the room, forming a circle, out of which stepped out a very handsome guy in a red clock.

“Huh. So hippies do portals now,” said Tony staring at the man’s face, “By the way, that goatee, it’s just fantastic.”

The man didn’t answer, but instead glanced back over his shoulder into the portal and shouted there, “Please do hurry up, things are awkward.”

“Coming!” replied somebody from the other side of the portal in a voice that was way too familiar. The voice was then followed by a figure in long black fashionable coat and with long carefully styled black hair.

“Reindeer games…” Tony was trying to become invisible, but was still rather impressed by the dramatic entrance.

“Hello to you too, Iron Man.” Loki nodded and slightly raised his hands showing that he didn’t have any weapons.

“Doctor Stark, Doctor Cho. I’m Doctor Stephen Strange, that is Loki Laufeyson. Please do excuse us for barging in, but we don’t have much time,” said the man in the cloak.

Helen Cho was leaning against the wall, staring at his face. “What do you mean we don’t have much time?”

Strange closed the portal and gestured towards Tony. “ Two hours ago, I sensed a relatively high magic concentration on Earth. I tracked it down and it appears to be originating in his organism. Its a harming type of magic. Do you have any health issues that started a couple of hours ago?” He nodded towards Tony, but just as the latter opened his mouth to tell them to screw off, he ain’t sharing that with nobody., Cho replied in his place.

“Yes, he does, the cells in his heart and sternum have been decaying and I was unsuccessful in finding out what caused such reaction.”

Tony looked at Cho with a raised eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

Strange turned to Loki and murmured something which neither Tony nor Helen were able to hear. However they were able to hear Loki’s reply.

“It’s the witch,” hissed the Asgardian and continued to speak to Strange in hushed voice.  
“If you’re talking about Wanda Maximoff,” decided to intervene Tony, “I haven’t seen her since Leipzig and that’s about a month or so ago. No way it was her.”

Both mages turned to look at him. “Could be a time-delayed,” said Loki, glancing at Strange.

“To cover it up,” continued the thought Strange.

“We need to check the pattern. Stephen, can I? I think I-” said Loki but was interrupted by Strange.

“I’m the doctor, not you,” he said and turned to Tony, “ Doctor Stark, we believe a harmful and possibly fatal spell was planted in your body. I need to run a few tests to determine the giver and to remove it. Can I?” He didn’t wait for the reply and turned to Helen. “ Doctor Cho, if I may, I don’t think you will be able to treat him, as magic is usually not treatable in non-magic way, but we really don’t have the time to transport him, so if we could just use your lab? It’ll only take a minute or so.”

Both Tony and Helen nodded. Tony actually didn’t care what would happen to him, as he was told that he was dying five minutes ago so clutched at any possibility of recovery even if it included magic and Helen just wanted to help Tony in any way possible.

Strange stepped up to Tony who was still lying flat on the hospital bed and started doing some movements with his hands above Tony’s chest, producing variuos glowing orange shapes. After a few minutes of tense silence, he concluded, “It is the time-delayed spell designed to create a hole in one’s chest for a slow and painful inevitable death. However, the giver is somewhat immature and inexperienced and left very distinct loopholes, so I removed the spell, but not the damage it had already done. I also can confirm Loki’s theory that it was Wanda Maximoff who casted the spell, as her powers have a very distinct trace and I have encountered her powers’ trace before when I visited Leipzig after the battle. I think that she planted the spell during the airport battle and designed it to become active later on so that nobody thinks it her.” Strange smirked. “I will-”

He was interrupted by a loud shriek “Get off me!” followed by a security guard being pushed in through the doorway. The guard yelled as he hit his head on the wall and then shouted, “Trespassing!” as he exited the room and again tried to restrain whoever was trying to get in. “Let me in!” Another loud female scream was heard, as Strange and Loki took defensive positions. Helen Cho grabbed a scalpel as a weapon and stepped near Tony, who was just lying there with closed eyes, trying not to worry much, as he didn’t want a heart attack.

Finally a guard walked inside and started frantically talking. “ Doctor Cho, we tried to restrain her, but she wouldn’t leave and she also bites apparently. I don’t- I don’t know how she got through downsta-” The poor fellow was pushed aside by a slim figure with fiery red hair.

Pepper looked around the scene, noticing Loki and Strange, and when she saw Tony in hospital bed, she inhaled and in the next second Tony could swear the building slightly trembled, as a loud scream exited Pepper’s mouth.

”What the fuck?”


	5. Loyal to Stark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What was happening in Stark Tower while Tony was getting rescued by Helen and how Pepper ended up screaming 'What the fuck' at Cho Labs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hello there! I am very sorry about long wait, but exams got the best of me. Thankfully, now I am done with schoolwork for the summer and I will be able to post more often. So, as an apology, here you go a chapter that is twice longer than others and I think is the best one I've ever written. I tried to write everyone in character, but somebody may be OOC. Next chapter is meanwhile in Wakanda and shortly after a continuation! Enjoy!  
> P.S: thank you for the positive comments and kudos! I appreciate it very much! In fact it helped me to get through my exams and not lose my sanity! Thank you a lot!

Monotone pop music was playing quietly in the corridor as Anna, following Friday’s directions (‘That’s not right, Miss Brands, right is on the other side’) finally reached the elevator, which opened just as she approached it.

In the elevator there was no buttons, but the doors closed anyways and took Anna somewhere upper.

“I control everything in this Tower, so if you need to get anywhere just tell me where you want to go and I’ll take you there,” informed her Friday, as the doors opened, leaving Anna to stand awkwardly in the middle of the common area, where the team had already gathered, except Tony.

"Umm, hello?" Anna stared at the people around the table. She knew most of them: she saw Colonel Rhodes, Hope Van Dyne and Vision in their appearances as New Avengers and Pepper was the first Stark-related person she met. The only ones unknown were two boys aged fifteen or sixteen  with brown hair: one with lighter and the other one with darker. She guessed that those two were the selected interns Tony was talking about.

"Hi, Anna!" greeted her Pepper and then turned around to introduce her to the rest of the people, "This is Anna, she is Tony's-"

"Selected intern!" quickly filled in Anna, just in case that Tony didn't get the memo to Pepper yet. "I'm Anna Brands, Mr Stark's selected intern. Nice to meet you all."

Pepper raised an eyebrow but then decided to go along. "Yep, just as I was saying. Anyway, Anna, do you know where Tony is? Food is getting cold and we don't want to start without him."

Anna shrugged. "He told me he'll be here before me, but I guess he is just finishing up in the lab."

Pepper exchanged glances with Rhodey. "Can you go get him, please?" she asked Rhodey, who nodded and with ease walked to the elevator, but Anna couldn't help but notice the mechanical whirring that followed his every step. Must've been prosthesis to help him walk after his fall, she thought, remembering news footage about the Leipzig battle. 

"Anna, have a sit, dear. Let me introduce you to everyone else here," continued Pepper and gestured towards one of the empty chairs between Hope Van Dyne and the older intern with lighter hair.

"I'm Hope," said the woman, looking at the girl sitting next to her, "Van Dyne. They also call me the Wasp. Nice to meet you, Anna." Hope genuinely smiled. Anna silently nodded for the lack of a better reaction. 

"I'm Harley Keener, that's Peter Parker, welcome to the team of selected interns, we're gonna have so much fun," said the intern on her other side, pointing to the dark-haired boy sitting next to Pepper.

"We call them the Destructive Duo. Please don't join them, I'm pretty sure one of the labs is still on fire," commented Hope, slightly nudging Anna.

"It was already on fire when we got there!" in unison shouted the boys.

"Sure," sarcastically whispered Hope but then broke into laughter along with everyone else at the table.

"I'm Vision. Hope you will like it here, Anna," said the red android with British accent, after everyone settled down, "The one that went to get Tony is James Rhodes, the War Machine pilot."

Right after his introduction, Rhodes rushed out of the elevator. "Pep, I need you down there, right now!" he shouted in a very worried tone.

Pepper frowned. "Is-" she started speaking, but Rhodes didn't let her finish.

"Don't talk, come with me!" 

Pepper offered a fake apologetic smile. "Start without us, we'll be right back," she said as she marched to the elevator, followed by the eyes

“So,” said Hope, trying to break the tense silence, “how was everyone’s day?”

Nobody really answered her, everyone seemingly very focused on their bowl of noodles, shooting worried glances at the elevator from time to time. Just out of politeness, Anna mumbled something that sounded like ‘fine, thank you, Miss Hope’ and then stared at her plate. She didn’t know why, but she became really upset inside, when Pepper left. There was a feeling in her gut like something was terribly wrong but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why she felt this way. That feeling was so intense that it even pushed panic that was building up from meeting all these new people and anger at Tony for not being there for her aside. _ _(Tony, no, not Tony, her dad not being there for her… Maybe he wasn’t her family after all… But he promised! He promised!)__

Anna stopped poking her noodles with her chopstick and glanced around at everyone. Everyone was shaken up. Guess there was something in the way Rhodey called for Pepper that unsettled everyone. And Anna felt that she needs to find out what it it, otherwise something bad will happen.

“I need to go to the ladies’ room,” she finally blurted out, standing up from the table, “Be right back.”

Followed by Hope’s gaze, she walked towards the elevator. Once the doors opened on the lower levels, she run as fast as she could to the workshop. Once she reached it, she saw Pepper and Rhodes standing in front of opaque black doors, looking angrily at the ceiling. The girl pulled herself behind the corner, careful not to make a sound. “Fuck your explicit orders, Fri! The man is not alright and he needs help!”said Rhodes and Anna felt her legs swaying. What was hidden underneath the suave smile of the billionaire who turned out to be her father?

* * *

 

“What’s wrong, James? Is it Tony? Is he- Oh please tell me that he’s not-” practically screamed Pepper as Rhodes dragged her through the maze of corridors on the lower levels of the Tower.

“No- I don’t know! After his trip to Siberia I don’t even know! He is fine one second then the next second he is crushing everything in the workshop! I don’t know if it that again, cause the workshop is on blackout, my override is not accepted, Friday doesn’t speak to me and Tony doesn’t answer any of his seven cellphones! And I’m afraid it’s __that__!’

Oh god. Pepper’s heart skipped a beat. They both knew what __that__  was. _ _That__ was when Pepper used her override to get access into blackouted workshop and found Tony blasting any reflecting surfaces including TVs, screens and polished metal tables with repulsors. She never told Tony she has seen it, but she told Rhodes about it in hopes that he could shine some light on the situation, as Pepper believed he knew what happened in Siberia. Turns out he didn’t as well, but he shared Pepper’s concern and admitted to her that Tony had changed drastically since that trip. And he, just as Pepper, believed that Siberia was much more then checking out his old safehouse, as he had told them.

They finally reached the workshop and Pepper with trembling fingers tapped in her override code.

“Access denied. I’m sorry, Miss Potts, but the lab is on full lockdown,” informed FRIDAY from the ceiling.

“Fri, you better accept my override and let me in. He might hurt himself!” almost threateningly growled Pepper.

“Boss is not hurting himself, I’m promising you that. However much I’d like to, I’m not allowed to open the lab. I had explicit orders not to.”

“Fuck your explicit orders, Fri! The man is not alright and he needs help!” shouted Rhodes.

“He’s getting it, believe me,” replied Friday in sombre tone.

“He’s getting it? From who? Friday, tell us!” commanded Pepper.

“I’m sorry, Miss Potts. I cannot.”

“Fuck you, Friday!” screamed Rhodes. He knew AI couldn’t go against Tony’s orders, but he still was mad at her.

“There must be another way for opening up the lab. Rhodes, does it have a manual switch or something?” asked Pepper, pacing around in circles.

“He removed it after Cap used it to enter the lab to scold Tony of his reckless behaviour!” replied Rhodes, leaning against the door.

“I may be able to help.” Rhodey and Pepper turned around to see Anna standing behind them. “Friday has a small loophole in her security protocol, that allows to temporarily disable her by tricking her into thinking her files are being deleted and initiating Self-Preservation protocol. She cannot fix it herself, as the loophole is in her primary programming that she is unable to access. I told To-, ah, Mr Stark about it, but I don’t think he fixed it yet.”

“How much have you heard… girl?” asked Rhodey, stomping towards her, “Everything that we’ve said is confidential and you’re not to mess around with Friday’s code-”

“Rhodey-” Pepper approached him from behind and put hands on his shoulders, slightly moving him away from Anna. “Rhodey, it’s okay, she won’t tell anyone.”

“How do you know, Pepper?” snapped Rhodey and turned back to glaring at Anna, “How can we trust her? She is the new intern and supervillains these days come in all sizes! What if she is from a renovated Red Room or Hydra academy?”

“She’s not, believe me-”

“Well, how do you know, Pepper? We didn’t notice Natashalie tricking everyone here!” Rhodey shook Pepper’s arms off him.

“I just know it!”/”I am his daughter!” said Pepper and Anna at the same time.

“I am daughter of Tony Stark,” repeated Anna slowly, “He is my father and I want to help him if he has problems as much as you do.”

Rhodey stood there dumbfounded. Then he slowly turned to Pepper. “Pep, is she really?” she muttered.

Pepper nodded and said, “Yes. We just found out today.”

“Fuck… I don’t wanna know the story, do I?” Rhodey covered his eyes with his hand and exhaled loudly.

“You do not. Now, Anna, is it true that you can let us in?” Pepper left Rhodey and turned to Anna.

Anna thought for a moment and then said, “Letting us in can take a very long time, as there are a lot of other security measures unconnected to Friday that are put in place. But getting security feed shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes.”

Pepper and Rhodey exhanged glances. “Follow me. I’ll take you to the server room, where you can hook up a laptop directly to Friday,” said Pepper after a second of silence and rushed back to the elevator.

 

* * *

 

Half an hour later, Pepper, Rhodey and Anna were leaning over a laptop screen, which now displayed Anna leaving the workshop. Pepper came up with an excuse for other teammates that she had to fill out some paperwork with Anna and Rhodes said to everyone that he had a headache and that he went to bed early. Basically, no one had any suspicions when the trio didn’t participate in the movie night organised by Vision to lift everyone’s spirits.

“There. I’m exiting the workshop and…” Anna stopped talking as the footage went black with green stripes. Corroded.

“Friday must’ve corroded it. Or it’s just our luck,” said Pepper, “Skip the corroded part, see what’s the next thing that happens.”

Anna obeyed and the next thing they saw was no one else than Helen Cho stepping inside a crack in the wall, which disappeared right after she passed through it.

“Is that a hidden elevator?” asked Rhodes, “That’s what Tony been building for a week after his trip. Why does Helen Cho even have access to it?”

“I don’t know,” replied Pepper, “It doesn’t matter. We’re going to Cho Labs. I’ll drive!”

 

* * *

 

Anna didn’t even know that you can get from one point of New York to another one in fifteen minutes. Another thing she and apparently Rhodes didn’t know was that Pepper was a very good driver.

“Get out of the car and follow me. I’ll handle it,” ordered Pepper once they reached the entrance to Cho Labs.

In the next couple of minutes, Pepper managed to sneak them in through a hidden backdoor directly to the upper storey of the building. “Not so long ago Stark Industries used to own this building,” she explained to them, while they were running up the stairs, “I knew they’ll forget to change the code on this door. I didn’t know about this passage until four years into SI ownership of the building.”

And then the amazing thing happened. Pepper literally pushed aside every guard using her teeth, heels and nails to get to the private lab of Cho. And even though there were only three guards were there due to the time being way over 6 pm and Cho ordering minimum personnel on the floor, and the guards were very hesitant to use violence against the famous Pepper Potts it was still pretty impressive.

Rhodes and Anna fell a bit behind as Pepper rushed to the entrance of Cho’s lab, pushing the last guard inside and then running inside herself and in the next second they could swear the building slightly trembled, as a loud scream exited Pepper’s mouth.

“What the fuck?”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and comments! All suggestions in comments will be reviewed! Please no negative, but constructive critique is quite welcome. Find me on Tumblr as theengineer_ao3 where I post short stories and update)


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